| Tournament Name: | Embassy World Snooker Championship |
| Venue: | Crucible Theatre |
| Location: | Sheffield |
| Country: | England |
| Organisation: | WPBSA |
| Format: | Ranking event |
| Total Prize Fund: | £17,000 |
| Winners Share: | £6,000 |
| Highest Break: | (135) |
| Score: | 25–21 |
| Previous: | 1976 |
| Next: | 1978 |
The 1977 World Snooker Championship is a professional snooker tournament that took place from 18 to 30 April 1977 at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield. John Spencer won his third World Snooker Championship title by defeating Cliff Thorburn by 25 to 21 in the final. It was the first time the championship was held at the Crucible, which has remained as the venue for the Championship. The tournament was sponsored by cigarette manufacturer Embassy.
Qualifying matches took place from 28 March to 7 April 1977 at Hounslow Civic Centre and Fisher's Snooker Centre, Acton, to select eight qualifiers to play against the eight top-seeded players from the 1976/1977 snooker world rankings in the main tournament. Ray Reardon, who had won the annual championship each year from 1973 to 1976, was defeated 6–13 by Spencer in the quarter-finals. There were six century breaks at the championship; Spencer scored 135, the tournament's highest break, in the sixth frame of his semi-final match against John Pulman. Spencer was the first player to win the championship using a two-piece . As champion, he received £6,000 from the prize fund of £17,000. The World Championship was the only ranking event of the 1976–77 snooker season.
British Army soldiers stationed in India invented snooker, a cue sport, in the late 19th century.[1] Joe Davis won the first World Snooker Championship, which the Billiards Association and Control Council (BA&CC) organised in 1927.[2] [3] In the "modern" era of the sport, which started in 1969 when the World Championship reverted to a knockout format,[4] snooker has become increasingly popular worldwide, especially in East and Southeast Asian nations such as China, Hong Kong and Thailand.[5] [6] [7] Since 1977, the championship has been held at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, England.[8]
In the 1977 championship, 16 professional players competed in one-on-one snooker matches in a single-elimination format, each match being played over several . Ray Reardon was the defending champion, having defeated Alex Higgins 27–16 in the final of the 1976 World Snooker Championship The top-eight players in the 1976/1977 snooker world rankings were exempted to the main tournament, where they each faced a player from a qualifying competition. The championship was organised by the governing body for professional snooker the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA),[9] and promoted by Mike Watterson,[10] with sponsorship by cigarette company Embassy.[11] Watterson chose the Crucible after his wife Carol Watterson, saw a play there and recommended the venue.[12] [13] Watterson booked the venue at a cost of £6,600, and made personal financial guarantees for the championship before Embassy's sponsorship had been secured. Audience members purchased tickets at prices ranging from 75p to £3.50, and the event made a surplus of £12,000.[14] [15] Highlights of the semi-finals and final were broadcast on the national television channel BBC2.[16] [17] [18]
The breakdown of prize money for 1977 was:[19]
The WPBSA first published official world rankings for players on the main tour for the 1976–77 season. Players' performances in the previous three World Snooker Championships—1974, 1975, and 1976—contributed to their points totals. These rankings were used for seedings for the tournament. As defending champion, Reardon was seeded first and was also number one on the ranking list.[20] [21] Originally, the top 14 players were due to be seeded into the last-16 round, but the WPBSA members voted 11–10 to change this so that only the top eight players were exempted to the last-16. The draw for the tournament was conducted by journalist Janice Hale at Albany Hotel, Birmingham.[22] The 1977 World Championship was the only ranking event of the 1976–77 season.[23]
Qualifying matches were scheduled from 28 March to 7 April 1977, and took place at Hounslow Civic Centre and Fisher's Snooker Centre, Acton.[24] In the first round, John Virgo eliminated Roy Andrewartha 11–1. In the next round, Virgo won four consecutive frames to go from 7–6 against John Dunning to win 11–6. Willie Thorne won six consecutive frames to complete an 11–6 defeat of Bernard Bennett. Jim Meadowcroft gained a 6–3 lead against Patsy Fagan but lost 9–11 after the pair had been level at 8–8. David Taylor defeated David Greaves 11–0 and made a century break in the fourth frame. There were two other 11–0 defeats: by Cliff Thorburn against Chris Ross and by Dennis Taylor against Jack Karnehm. Veteran Jackie Rea was 8–6 and later 9–8 ahead of Masters champion Doug Mountjoy, a first-season professional who was the reigning World Amateur Champion. Mountjoy won three consecutive frames to win the match 11–9. Maurice Parkin withdrew from the tournament due to illness, giving John Pulman a win by default.[25] Fagan, Virgo, Mountjoy and Thorne qualified to make their World Championship debuts.[26]
The first round took place from 18 to 21 April; each match was played over three sessions as the best of 25 frames. Reardon and Fagan each won four frames in their first session,[27] before Reardon opened a 10–7 lead during the second session and won the match 13–7 the following day.[28] John Spencer was three frames behind Virgo at 1–4 and 4–7 but won three successive frames to equalise both times, and won the match 13–9. Graham Miles was one frame in front of Thorne at 4–3 after their first session, and from 5–4 ahead, Miles won eight consecutive frames to win the match. Pulman led his fellow former world champion Fred Davis 5–3, and then 11–6, winning 13–12.[29]
Eddie Charlton won seven of the first eight frames against David Taylor, made a 105 break in the 12th frame and progressed to the next round with a 13–5 win. Thorburn won seven successive frames during his 13–6 defeat of Rex Williams. Dennis Taylor concluded a 13–11 win against Perrie Mans with a break of 76, the highest of their match, in the 24th frame. The second seed Alex Higgins was 9–7 ahead of Mountjoy after two sessions but Mountjoy won the opening frame of their third session with a 102 break, and then four of the following five frames. Higgins won the following two frames and led by 36 points in the . Higgins missed an attempt to pot the, and a break of 31 by Mountjoy immediately afterwards terminated when he failed to the final . Two visits later, Mountjoy potted the black to win the match.[30]
The quarter-finals were played as best-of-25-frames matches over three sessions on 23 and 24 April. Reardon was never ahead of Spencer, who won the match 6–13, eliminating Reardon. The Snooker Scene match-report assessment said: "Even when the title was slipping away from [Reardon] he never seemed able to focus his concentration and stop making mistakes". Pulman reached the semi-finals for the first time since 1970 by defeating Miles 13–10. The reporter for Snooker Scene said Pulman played "the smooth, attractive snooker of his great days" in the final session.
Thorburn and Charlton were level several times at 3–3, 7–7, 10–10 and 11–11. Charlton won the 23rd frame on the final black but lost the match when Thorburn won the next two frames to win the match 13–12. Mountjoy won the first three frames of his match against Dennis Taylor but then lost the next five frames.[31] Each player won four frames in the second session, then Taylor won the opening frame in the third session to lead 10–7. Mountjoy won the next two frames, each on the final black ball, but lost the 20th frame after he went the last black. Taylor won 13–11.
The semi-finals took place from 24 to 27 April as best-of-35-frames matches played over five sessions. Pulman took a 3–0 lead but Spencer recovered to 3–3 and compiled a of 135 in the sixth frame. Pulman then went ahead 7–3 before Spencer levelled the match by winning the next four frames. Spencer went on to lead 13–9 and 16–2, and won 18–12, qualifying for the final for the first time since 1972.[32]
Thorburn led 4–3 after the first session and was level at 7–7 with Taylor after the second session. At the start of the third session, Thorburn made a 100 break, which included a on the final, and led 12–9 at the close of the penultimate day. Taylor added three frames to his tally at the start of the fourth session to equalise, and four frames later, the pair were again level at 14–14. Four frames into the last session, they were at 16–16. Thorburn made a break of 111 in the 33rd frame, during which the only time he potted the black ball was at the end, then took a lead of 80–0 points in the 34th frame, which ended 98–30, meaning Thorburn qualified for the final for the first time.[33]
The tournament's final took place from 28 to 30 April as the best of 49 frames, and was refereed by John Smyth.[34] Spencer won his third world title by defeating Thorburn 25–21.[20] The first session ended with Spencer 4–2 ahead after he won the opening three frames,[35] and he extended his lead to 5–2 before Thorburn won four of the next five frames to leave the score at 6–6 at the day's conclusion.[36] When the third session ended, Thorburn and Spencer were tied at 9–9. Spencer made a break of 105 in the 18th frame.
During the fourth session, Thorburn gained a 13–11 advantage[37] and extended it to 15–11 but Spencer won the next four frames to make it 15–15. The players were also level at 18–18 at the start of the final's last day. Spencer won the first three frames of the day. Thorburn won the following two frames before Spencer won the 42nd frame with a break of 67 to lead 22–20. Thorburn narrowed his deficit to one frame at 21–22 but Spencer won the next three frames to claim victory.
Spencer was the first player to win the title with a two-piece cue. His previous cue was smashed in a car accident just before the 1974 Norwich Union Open; despite repairs, Spencer was not confident about using it so he purchased a new, two-piece implement whilst on tour in Canada. Having made several century breaks with the new cue following his return to England, Spencer decided to use it for the championship only two months before the tournament. A few months after his victory, he replaced it with a different, Japanese-made cue.[38] Snooker historian Clive Everton wrote Spencer "exploded two myths" by winning with a two-piece cue, a type of implement that was generally seen as suitable for pool but not snooker, and having only used it for two months, when most professional players thought it took many months to become proficient with a new cue.[39] Thorburn also used a two-piece cue for the match as was common in his native Canada.[39]
An article in Snooker Scene contrasted Spencer's playing style in his earlier World Championship victories, which featured "aggressive" long, to the way he played in 1977, which included fewer long pots and consistent mid-distance potting, and praised his "coolness and steadiness of nerve" and his choice of shots to play.[40] The same magazine described Thorburn's strengths at the tournament as "concentration and consistency".[41]
The results for the tournament are shown below. The numbers in brackets denote player seedings and match winners are denoted in bold.[42] [43]
Details for the final are shown below. Numbers in bold and with a symbol represent frame-winning scores. Numbers in brackets and italics represent breaks of 50 or more.
| Final: Best-of-49 frames. Crucible Theatre, Sheffield. 28–30 April 1977. Referee: John Smyth. | |||||||
| 25–21 | |||||||
| First session, 28 April, 11:00a.m. start | |||||||
| Frame | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| Spencer | 63 | 98 | 79 | 41 | 28 | 73 | |
| Thorburn | 49 | 21 | 24 | 46 | 94 | 13 | |
| Frames (Spencer first) | 1–0 | 2–0 | 3–0 | 3–1 | 3–2 | 4–2 | |
| Second session, 28 April, 3:15p.m. start | |||||||
| Frame | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | |
| Spencer | 70 (68) | 39 | 11 | 29 | 87 (75) | 32 | |
| Thorburn | 46 | 77 | 72 | 64 | 21 | 70 | |
| Frames (Spencer first) | 5–2 | 5–3 | 5–4 | 5–5 | 6–5 | 6–6 | |
| Third session, 28 April, 7:30p.m. start | |||||||
| Frame | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | |
| Spencer | 41 | 51 | 84 (54) | 105 (97) | 44 | 118 (105) | |
| Thorburn | 90 | 62 | 40 | 21 | 69 | 0 | |
| Frames (Spencer first) | 6–7 | 6–8 | 7–8 | 8–8 | 8–9 | 9–9 | |
| Fourth session, 29 April, 11:00a.m. start | |||||||
| Frame | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | |
| Spencer | 60 | 71 | 73 | 33 | 53 | 38 | |
| Thorburn | 71 | 31 | 45 | 85 | 85 (58) | 70 | |
| Frames (Spencer first) | 9–10 | 10–10 | 11–10 | 11–11 | 11–12 | 11–13 | |
| Fifth session, 29 April, 3:15p.m. start | |||||||
| Frame | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | |
| Spencer | 38 | 48 | 87 | 90 | 81 | 63 | |
| Thorburn | 58 | 77 (77) | 31 | 40 | 20 | 58 | |
| Frames (Spencer first) | 11–14 | 11–15 | 12–15 | 13–15 | 14–15 | 15–15 | |
| Sixth session, 29 April, 7:30p.m. start | |||||||
| Frame | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | |
| Spencer | 29 | 59 | 78 (78) | 70 | 39 | 46 | |
| Thorburn | 82 | 26 | 58 | 44 | 75 (75) | 85 | |
| Frames (Spencer first) | 15–16 | 16–16 | 17–16 | 18–16 | 18–17 | 18–18 | |
| Seventh session, 30 April, 11:00a.m. start | |||||||
| Frame | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | |
| Spencer | 93 | 64 | 74 | 9 | 36 | 107 (67) | |
| Thorburn | 20 | 51 | 21 | 83 (58) | 72 | 20 | |
| Frames (Spencer first) | 19–18 | 20–18 | 21–18 | 21–19 | 21–20 | 22–20 | |
| Eighth session, 30 April, 2:30p.m. start | |||||||
| Frame | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 |
| Spencer | 17 | 83 | 69 | 72 (51) | |||
| Thorburn | 74 | 14 | 36 | 12 | |||
| Frames (Spencer first) | 22–21 | 23–21 | 24–21 | 25–21 | |||
| 105 | Highest break | 77 | |||||
| 1 | Century breaks | 0 | |||||
| 7 | Other 50+ breaks | 4 | |||||
| John Spencer won the 1977 World Snooker Championship |
Results for the qualifying rounds are shown below. Players in bold denote match winners.[44] [45]
| width=200 | Player | width=60 | Score | width=200 | Player |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11–1 |
| width=200 | Player | width=60 | Score | width=200 | Player |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11–9 | |||||
| 11–6 | |||||
| 11–4 | |||||
| – | |||||
| 11–0 | |||||
| 11–0 | |||||
| 11–0 | |||||
| 11–9 |
There were six century breaks at the championship. The highest break of the tournament was 135, which was made by John Spencer.[46]